The Coalition's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop, has released the party's policy in that area.

It mentions foreign aid.

"We are concerned about the rapid increase in foreign aid, described in the 2011 Independent Review Into Aid Effectiveness as 'steep and challenging', in light of real concerns about the ability of AusAid and other agencies to manage such a programme efficiently and effectively," the document says.

"We also do not believe that the Australian community is entirely comfortable with the government's doubling of an already large overseas development assistance budget rapidly without robust performance benchmarks - especially as Labor has slashed spending in important areas like Defence."

A Coalition government would also review Australia's diplomatic presence overseas within six months.

4:04pm on 5 Sep 2013

Business writer Michael Pascoe doesn't think much of the Coalition's costings.

"Even if you take year three and four budget projections seriously (and you really can't, as everyone should now know) that works out to be an average improvement of $1.5 billion a year on a $400 billion budget - all of 0.375 per cent," Michael writes.

"It's not even a rounding error. A half decent Queensland storm can blow that away in half in hour."

Greens leader Christine Milne is responding to the Coalition's costings.

"How much of what is left [of the foreign aid budget] is going to be spent on tent cities on Nauru and cruelty towards asylum seekers?" Senator Milne says.

Senator Milne says it is "shocking" to suggest foreign aid should be cut to fund infrastructure.

"Tony Abbott is not only bad for this country - he is bad for the region," she says.

3:33pm on 5 Sep 2013

UNICEF got its response out quickly to the cuts to foreign aid funding.

"It's clear the Coalition no longer has the same desire to deliver on poverty reduction and good governance it held during the Howard years," the chief executive of UNICEF Australia, Norman Gillepsie, says.

"Mr Hockey may well wish to argue the economy will grow faster under a Coalition but his costings are at the expense of children's lives."

3:27pm on 5 Sep 2013

Mr Albanese says the Coalition is the "favourite to win" on Saturday but he believes Labor can win.

3:25pm on 5 Sep 2013

Mr Albanese says the Coalition is making "vicious cuts" and names the Murray Darling funding rephasing which will affect the people of Adelaide and "anyone who cares about the environment".

3:16pm on 5 Sep 2013

Let's get Labor's reaction from Anthony Albanese.

"They're not policy costings, they're a farce," Mr Albanese says.

"That document is not a policy costing....What we aren't seeing is any of the documentation for any of this work. They've been hiding their costings, they've been hiding their candidates."

"Only an emphatic decision from the Australian people on Saturday....that's the only way we can fix the budget," Mr Hockey says.

(Just remember in all of this that a lot of the Coalition's savings depend on the scrapping of the carbon price - which has to be passed by Parliament.)

2:45pm on 5 Sep 2013

There will also be "modest new savings" from a rephasing of the Murray Darling water buyback scheme - $650 million - to spread four years of spending over six years.

A further $428 million will be saved with an additional 0.25 efficiency dividend on the public service which the document says will come from "prudent limitations on government advertising and consultancies as well as on government travel".

2:42pm on 5 Sep 2013

The money will be allocated to Melbourne's East West link ($1.5 billion), Sydney's WestConnex ($1.5 billion) and the Brisbane Gateway Motorway upgrade ($1 billion).

The costings document says the Coalition remains "committed to the Millenium Development goal of increasing foreign aid of 0.5 per cent of GNI over time, but cannot commit to a date given the current state of the federal budget".

"As well, the Coalition will re prioritise foreign aid allocations towards non government organisations that deliver on the ground support for those most in need," the document says.

Mr Hockey says "all the numbers that are presented today show we are living within our means".

The Coalition has released 700 pages of policy during the campaign, compared with 200 pages from Labor, Mr Hockey says.

"We are going to cut the growth in foreign aid to pay for infrastructure," Mr Hockey says.

"We are reducing the growth in foreign aid by $4.5 billion over the forward estimates."

The accompanying document (which I've just received) says: "It is unsustainable to continue massive projected growth in foreign aid funding whilst the Australian economy continues at below trend growth. Australia needs a stronger economy today so that it can be more generous in the future."